


Working Together

by Tafka



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: 500 Words Challenge, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 01:37:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8184100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tafka/pseuds/Tafka
Summary: Amell and Surana do their best at chores and keeping their relationship a secret





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Starla-Nell (Princess_Nell)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princess_Nell/gifts).



> Since Amell/Surana is completely canon in my mind, I was happy to see a prompt for them, & I made a little 500-word treat

Caught out again after curfew, their punishment was drudgery, but not overly difficult. The punishment for being caught out after lights out “canoodling” with another apprentice was severe, but the punishment for being caught getting in late from a library study session was only a week of chores. Since Amell and Surana had a mutually-agreed upon policy of maintaining their impeccable reputations as Good Apprentices, when they were caught out, they never ended up in serious trouble. As a result, they became rather good at floor-washing.

Scrubbing the floor of the alchemy lab was a light task, but one that they were not initially successful at. The Amell family had servants who scrubbed the floors, and the Dalish did not have floors at all. The first time they had been given brushes and a bucket ended in a lot of silly questions and frustration on the part of their templar minder. After many years of practice, they fell into the rhythm effortlessly, scrubbing side-by-side and wordlessly taking turns bringing the bucket back to the pump to refill while the other took a few moments rest. Although working in silence wasn’t always required, Surana and Amell had found that doing so unprompted had benefits. Even the strictest disciplinarian didn’t seem to notice that they paused to fill the bucket and rinse the brushes much more often than necessary, as long as they did so without appearing to communicate. 

Whenever Amell passed the brush back to Surana, she let their fingers brush just a bit. Their hands were both cold and wet with dingy water, but it was a moment of warmth between them anyway.

It was commonly said in the tower that they were interchangeable; always of one mind of everything. This was not true at all. Amell was always the optimist, believing the best of people right up to the very moment she was proven wrong. She would go out of her way to help people, certain that, if only she could garner enough goodwill, anyone would be inclined to help her. Surana was more pragmatic. She had learned quickly that if you kept your head down and your eyes open you could learn everything you needed to survive the Circle. They were not at all the same person, but they did have a unity of purpose and an implicit trust of the other’s decisions. If Amell volunteered to tutor the junior apprentices, or if Surana lingered in a study room while the meeting of Aequitarians went on next door, the other would follow. 

Their ultimate goal was twofold. First, to stay in good standing with the Circle until they were both safely named Enchanters, and second, to snatch as many moments alone as they could manage. One day soon, they would be harrowed Mages who set their own schedules and had their own quarters and significantly more privacy. For now, they were apprentices who affectionately bumped their shoulders together as they scrubbed the floor and stole kisses after curfew.


End file.
